Trade Minister inaugurates board for GHS 6.7m maize company
The Minister of Trade and Industry, Alan Kyerematen has inaugurated a ten-member board to steer the affairs of a GHs6.7m maize processing company at Nsuta Kwagyei in the Sekyere Central District of the Ashanti Region under the One District One Factory Common User Facility Initiative.
The 1D1F Common User Facility (CUF) is a farmer-owned agro-industrial processing facility established with seed funding from the Ministry of Trade and Industry (MOTI) under the Rural Enterprises Programme (REP).
According to the minister, the Model seeks to enhance the ability of farmers and other agricultural value chain actors, with little or no financial capacity to establish their own Common User processing facilities to process their farm products. In response to this constraint, MOTI sought funding from African Development Bank (AfDB) to introduce this new concept of establishing CUFs in five (5) Districts including the Sekyere Maize Processing facility.
These CUFs have been established in selected areas where farmers engaged in the same commodity value chains lack facilities to process the outputs from their farming operations.
Speaking to the press after the inauguration on Tuesday, he said “ they would supply raw materials or maize to their own processing plant, when they bring it , they would be paid just as they would if they were sending it to other processing plant, but the beauty of this is that because they own the processing plant, apart from they being paid for whatever they supply to the factory, they would also earn the dividends when the raw material is processed into higher value, so this is a breakthrough model for enhancing the profitability or value addition for farmers.”
Criteria
He explained that government identified specific districts where they have not been able to identify business promoters who are interested in filing for being part of the 1D1F.
“The point is you don’t want to leave district out just for the fact that they do not have business people who show interest in establishing their own processing plant, so we identified a number of these districts and we selected five of these based on the type of commodity where they have comparative advantage, so in this district , they have a comparative advantage in maize, what you see here is farmer owned company, owned by 600 farmers, with seed funding provided by government with the support of the African Development Bank, they are supporting the Rural Enterprises Enterprises programme which is run by the Ministry of Trade and Industry and we have used the funding to be able to establish this processing plant for farmers, but this is not a state enterprise but a farmer owned company and being able to empower farmers so that they can also participate in the 1D1F initiative.
“We understand and appreciate that although we have supported the farmers to own such a facility they may not have the capacity to manage the plant on their own so again, government has facilitated the process of recruiting a management services company to provide management support for the farmers and operations of the company under a management services contract, so the management team reports to the governing board which is composed of representatives from the farmer based organisations, there is also representative from the ministry, traditional authorities, district assembly all on the board.”
Sustainability
Further, he noted that with regard to its sustainability, “It is a proof of concept, so the farmers own the company and they have recruited a management services company,they would have their management services operational plan like any other company , the plan should determine the viability of this facility.
There is an oversight function provided by the board of directors which is chaired by the farmers and the majority of representation which is also the farmers, they will run it like any high profile,commercially viable entity.”
The Country Manager of African Development Bank, Eyerusalem Fasika stated that they were attracted to support the programme due to their engagement with the people of Ghana under the country strategy programming document which aligns their strategy with government strategy.
“When you look at this programme, it is very much in line with the government private sector development agenda, industrialization agenda particularly in the area of 1D1F, in addition it would enhance the maize sector through value addition, an important area for the agriculture sector, as well as job creation for the young people -women, we are very happy and we expect this facility to provide the intended result in a timely manner. I urge the district assembly, farmer group to really look after this facility so it can stand the test of time.”she said.
The Sekyere Maize Processing CUF 1D1F has a state-of-the-art maize processing equipment with the capacity to process 4-5 tonnes of dry maize, and 5 tonnes of maize grits per day respectively. The construction of the factory commenced in January 2020 and was completed and handed over in June 2022.
The processing plant installed at the factory include a maize Drying Plant and a Grit Milling Machine. It has a standby generator and a mechanized borehole to supply the factory with water. In addition, the factory has a Warehouse, fully furnished office accommodation for staff, a conference room, laboratory room and a canteen for the workers.
The total cost of the factory is about Ghs6.7m, including the cost of factory building, processing plant and machinery, offices, office equipment and a Pickup vehicle.
The CUF 1D1F is owned by a group of maize farmers and other stakeholders with the following shareholding structure: 70% by Sekyere Central Union of Maize Producers Associations (Mother Association of all Maize Farmer Based Organisations in the Sekyere Central District of Ashanti), 20% by Ministry of Trade and Industry and 10% by Traditional Council.
The Sekyere Central Union of Maize Producers Associations comprises of 18 individual FBOs. The total membership of the 18 individual FBOs is about 600 farmers.
